Teething ring



E. M. ZELONY TEETHING RING Filed July 15, 1955 INVENTOR. EMA/05L M. ZELONY ATTORNEYS TEETHING RING Emanuel M. Zelony, New York, N. Y.

Application July 13, 1955', Serial No. 521,667

3 Claims. (Cl. 128-659) The present invention relates to a teething instrument and more particularly to a teething ring comprised of resilient hollow tubular material containing an hermetically sealed liquid. The invention also relates to a method of producing said teething ring.

Resilient teething rings containing a liquid are well known. The presence of the liquid enables the use of the ring as a cold compress for soothing the irritated gums of a teething infant. Such rings, however, have the disadvantage in that they yield easily to light pressure and even bend transversely and therefore do not always function adequately in aiding teething similarly to hard ring.

I have found that a liquid-containing resilient teething ring can be stiffened by adding a hollow capsule-like or ellipsoidal structure to the center opening of the ring, the structure being made integral to the inner periphery of the ring. Such a ring will have better teething qualities because of its increased stiffness and at the same time may be utilized as a cold compress to sooth the infants gums. The hollow stitfening structure which may be transparent preferably contains a small freely moving figurine which is observable by the infant and which rattles against the walls of the hollow stiffening body. Thus, the instrument may be employed as a combination rattle and teething ring.

Other advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the drawing in which:

Fig. 1 depicts an exploded view of an embodiment of the teething instrument provided by the invention as illustrated in Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 shows a three-dimensional view of the teething instrument comprising substantially the elements shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross section taken along line 33 of Fig. 1 with the figurine not shown.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the teething ring comprises a hollow peripheral portion 1 of thin transparent resilient material such as vinyl and polyethylene plastic and the like or other resilient materials which are resistant in general to wear and abrasion and which are heat sealable to each other to enable the hermetical sealing of liquid in the hollow portion. The ring which is in effect doughnut shaped has a center opening 2. The resilient hollow portion comprises two portions in and 1b which are heat sealed together at their outer and inner peripheries to form external fin 1c and internal fin 1d, Generally, the external fin is much smaller than the internal one. A small portion of the periphery is maintained unsealed to enable the filling of the annular space between the sealed portions with a liquid which is thereafter hermetically sealed in by sealing the unsealed portion. Two dished caps 3 and 4 of transparent relatively "ice hard plastic material and of roughly spherical or ellipsoidal contour are then heat sealed to the inner fin 1d of the hollow ring with their flanges 3a and 4a opposing each other on each side of the fin to form a hollow capsule. This is shown more clearly in Fig. 3. If desired, before the two dished caps are heat sealed to the inner fin of the ring, a figurine 5 may be placed in the space between them. The two dished caps when sealed and made integral to the inner periphery of the hollow ring serve structurally to stiffen the hollow resilient ring, thus giving it a certain amount of firmness so that it is enabled to operate more efiiciently and uniformly as a teething ring. The figurine which rattles inside the transparent capsule occupies the infant during teething and distracts it from its discomfort. The teething ring may have a small plastic tab 6, with a hole 6a as shown in Fig. 3, projecting from the outer periphery for attachment to a ribbon, which may be tied around an infants wrist or for hanging the teething ring above the cradle in reach of the infant. The liquid inside the resilient portion of the ring may be cooled by any suitable means, such as placing it for a suitable length of time in cold water or in a controlled refrigerator or the like.

The term teething instrument or ring as employed herein is meant to include any shaped ring, be it triangular, rectangular, oval, etc., so long as the peripheral ring portion is hollow and is made of heat sealable resilient plastic. The transparent hollow center body which fills the opening of the ring and is structurally attached to the fin of the inner periphery thereof will be shaped in accordance with the configuration of the opening.

Although the present invention has been described in conjunction with a preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as those skilled in the art will readily understand. Such modifications and variations are considered to be within the purview and scope of the invention and appended claims.

I claim:

1. A teething instrument comprising a ring made of resilient hollow plastic material filled with a liquid hermetically sealed therein, said inner periphery of the ring having a continuous fin therearound to which is heat sealed on each side thereof relatively hard dished caps having peripheral flanges which are heat sealed to and which coincide substantially with the fin, whereby the caps form a hollow structural member for stiffening the resilient ring.

2. The teething instrument of claim 1 in which the dished caps are transparent and in which the empty space bounded by the dished caps contains a freely moving figurine capable of rattling.

3. A teething instrument comprising a ring made of resilient hollow plastic material filled with a liquid hermetically sealed therein, said inner periphery of the ring having a continuous fin therearound to which is sealed on each side thereof relatively hard dished caps having peripheral flanges which are sealed to and which coincide substantially with the fin, whereby the caps form a hollow structural member for stiffening the resilient ring.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,112,316 Turner Mar. 29, 1938 2,334,110 McMahan Nov. 9, 1943 2,703,087 Newmark Mar. 1, 1955 

